9-22-22 - As seen on Law360.com Tom Girardi's Treasures Going Once, Twice, Sold At Auction
By Craig Clough · Listen to article
Law360 (September 22, 2022, 7:24 PM EDT) -- It is often said that you can't judge a man before walking a mile in his shoes, and one lucky bidder can now do just that in disgraced attorney Tom Girardi's shaded brown crocodile Gucci Oxfords, thanks to an auction Wednesday of items from his Southern California mansion.
The size 9 shoes come with the original box, extra laces and a dust bag, and sold for $850 to an anonymous online bidder during a live court-ordered auction conducted at John Moran Auctioneers & Appraisers in Monrovia, California.
The shoe sale was just a drop in the bucket of the roughly $100 million Girardi and his defunct firm, Girardi Keese, are believed to owe former clients, co-counsel, lenders and vendors, according to bankruptcy court filings.
Girardi was disbarred in June after the State Bar of California found that he stole millions from several clients' settlements, including widows and orphans of plane crash victims.
"That's like the push and pull of buying something from this auction, because it's almost gross where it came from," Christopher Dobbs, one of the in-person bidders, told Law360. "There are beautiful pieces here, but who was paying for all of this? It kind of puts a pit in your stomach."
"But the repurchase of it goes to the victims, so that's where I feel lucky to be able to do that," he added. "It's a lot of craziness that went on."
Technically, the proceeds from the auction do not directly benefit victims of Girardi's alleged theft, but will go to some of his creditors.
About a dozen folks attended the auction in person, while the majority of the activity occurred online and over the phone as hundreds of remote bidders tuned in to see the opulent items once owned by Girardi and his estranged wife, reality television star Erika Girardi.
John Moran, president of the auction house, told Law360 toward the end of the four-hour event that it exceeded expectations and ended up being a "white-glove moment" with a 100% sell-through rate, which is somewhat rare.
"It's what every auctioneer hopes for," Moran said.
The notoriety of the Girardis likely increased participation in the auction. At its peak, about 900 viewers tuned in online, while a similar-sized auction would typically top out at around 500 viewers, Moran said. The auction house estimated before Wednesday that the sale would bring in up to $280,700, but reported on Thursday that the final tally was $493,641.
More than 200 items were put up for auction, including lavish pieces of art, furniture and rare literature. There were also more modestly priced items, such as three of Tom Girardi's glass achievement awards: a 2017 Consumer Attorney of the Year Award, a 2017 June Lockhart Humanitarian Award and a 2008 Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles Award.
Just who was interested in owning achievement awards from the disbarred California attorney remains unknown, as they were sold to a remote bidder.
A Steinway piano went for $37,500 — far less than the estimated top value of $60,000, but still the priciest item sold.
Also sold was an 1815 first edition of Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Art of War" for $2,500; a basketball signed by Michael Jordan for $3,750; three boxing gloves signed by George Foreman and Joe Frazier for $600; and a Kenny Rogers album signed by the Gambler himself for $100 as a set with a signed Christopher Cross album.
One of the more oddball items was a Wrestlemania 2000 towel signed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and other WWE stars, which went to a remote bidder for $250.
Not up for auction Monday was a pair of $750,000 diamond earrings Erika Girardi turned over to a bankruptcy trustee after being ordered to do so in June by a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge. Her reluctance to turn over the jewelry was recorded for a recent episode of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," on which she stars as a main cast member.
Moran told Law360 that the earrings will go up for auction in December at John Moran Auctioneers & Appraisers, along with other jewelry connected to the Girardis.
Dobbs said he had never attended an auction before Wednesday, although he participated in a few online. He runs a retail development business with his father and said he came to the event because of a bronze with aluminum and fabricated stainless steel statue called "Allow Me" by the late artist J. Seward Johnson Jr. The statue depicts a man in a suit with an umbrella appearing to hail a cab.
Dobbs snagged the artwork with an $11,000 bid.
Like Dobbs, attendee Andi Lee is also a relative newcomer to auctions. After attending a jewelry auction at the same location several days ago, she said she saw many of the Girardi items on display and decided to come back with her boyfriend, although they didn't end up placing any winning bids.
Lee told Law360 that she is a retired banker and did not follow the Girardi drama closely, but a friend filled her in. Also like Dobbs, Lee was under the impression Girardi's alleged victims would benefit from the auction.
"I know that they weren't really sure how this auction was going to go with the name and all the legal problems that they've been having, so they didn't know if it was going to go really well," she said. "People might have thought that the Girardis were going to get the money from the sale, but I guess that's not the case — it's going to the victims. So that's kind of good, you're helping the victims."
Eighty percent of the money will go to repay California Attorney Lending II Inc., a New York-based litigation lender that lodged a claim for more than $6 million against Girardi and his firm as part of their bankruptcy proceedings. The remaining 20% will go to Girardi's numerous unsecured creditors under an agreement reached last year, according to the bankruptcy trustee's application to hire the auctioneer.
Girardi, 83, was a prominent and politically connected plaintiffs attorney for decades, famed for his role in winning a $333 million settlement in the groundwater pollution case that inspired the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich." More recently, he has been known for being the husband of "Real Housewives" star Erika Girardi, whose stage name is Erika Jayne.
But in December 2020, a federal judge in Chicago found that Tom Girardi and his firm had stolen at least $2 million from settlements he negotiated on behalf of widows and orphans of plane crash victims. By then, Girardi and his firm were already insolvent.
Creditors soon forced Girardi and his firm into separate bankruptcy liquidation proceedings, and Girardi has since been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and placed under conservatorship.
Numerous other clients have come forward alleging that Girardi stole from them.
The trustee, Jason Rund, is represented by Timothy J. Yoo and Carmela T. Pagay of Levene Neale Bender Yoo & Golubchik LLP.
Tom Girardi's conservatorship is represented by Leonard Pena of Pena & Soma APC.
California Attorney Lending II is represented by William F. Savino of Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP.
The case is In Re: Thomas Vincent Girardi, case number 2:20-bk-21020, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.
--Additional reporting by Brandon Lowrey. Editing by Alanna Weissman and Jay Jackson Jr
